Time magazine was supposed to have an innocent little sit down with President Trump, but of course nothing involving the overlord of the White House can be innocent or easy or not involve the president threatening a Time reporter with prison.
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According to CNN, during the interview with a team of reporters from Time magazine inside the Oval Office on Monday, Trump reportedly showed reporters a letter that he claimed was written by his new BFF and possible 2020 running mate Kim Jong Un.
The news only got to the masses on Thursday after Time published the interview transcription.
According to the transcript, in typical Trump fashion, the president was reportedly boasting about how the letter was written by the North Korean leader. โIt was delivered to me yesterday. By hand,โ he said and then asked to go off the record probably so he could praise their relationship and talk about what he planned on getting him in return. Hint: Itโs a Fabergรฉ egg made in the shape of Trumpโs testicle.
A Time journalist, who Iโm sure was all โIโm about to expose all this cuddling bullshit between these two dick-tators,โ attempted to take a photo of the letter and thatโs when all hell broke loose.
Press secretary Sarah Sanders, who has reportedly startedย wearing sweatpants and a half shirt to work because she really doesnโt give a shit anymore now that sheโs announced sheโs quitting, told the reporter, โYou canโt take a picture of that, sorry.โ
From CNN:
Later in the interview, the Time team brought up the fact that Trump tried to โlimit Muellerโs Russia probe to only future election meddling.โ One of the reporters (the transcript doesnโt say who) noted that Trump dictated a letter to a former aide, Corey Lewandowski, โtelling him to tellโ former attorney general Jeff Sessions โto limit the investigation.โ The details were included in former Special Counsel Robert Muellerโs report.
The Time reporter said โhe testified under oath under threat of prison time, that that was the case Mr. President.โ Trump, cornered, did what he usually does: He lashed out and brought up the other letter, the one he had shown off earlier, from North Koreaโs dictator.
Quoting from the transcript:
TRUMP: โExcuse me โ Under Section II โ Well, you can go to prison instead, because, if you use, if you use the photograph you took of the letter that I gave you โโ
TIME: โDo you believe that people should be โโ
TRUMP: โconfidentially, I didnโt give it to you to take photographs of it โ So donโt play that game with me. Let me just tell you something. You take a look โโ
TIME: โIโm sorry, Mr. President. Were you threatening me with prison time?โ
Trump then did the thing he does best where heโs simultaneously self-aggrandizing while being self-deprecating and hurt that he wasnโt the person of the year.
โWell,โ he said, โI told you the following. I told you, you can look at this off-the-record. That doesnโt mean you take out your camera and start taking pictures of it. O.K.? So I hope you donโt have a picture of it. I know you were very quick to pull it outโeven you were surprised to see that. You canโt do that stuff. So go have fun with your story. Because Iโm sure it will be the 28th horrible story I have in TIME Magazine because I neverโI meanโha. Itโs incredible. With all Iโve done and the success Iโve had, the way that TIME Magazine writes is absolutely incredible,โ CNN reports.
Then the president continued his tangent about not being special. โSome day within the next 20 years,โ he said, โmaybe youโll pick me as Man of the Year. O.K., big deal.โ CNN notes that Trump was The โPerson of the Yearโ in 2016 and he still ainโt happy.
Donโt worry, America, the inappropriate selfies of Kim Jong Un in states of undress included with the letter wonโt ever see the light of day as Time wonโt be publishing them since they were apart of the off-the-record conversation.
โAt various points during the interview, the President asked to go off-the-record, and TIME is honoring those requests,โ a spokeswoman told CNN.
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